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TEL AVIV – Israeli tanks and soldiers quickly advanced into the outskirts of Gaza City overnight Monday, reaching the main highway that runs north and south through the 25-mile-long enclave. The forces were so close to the city that these ground troops ordered air strikes on Hamas targets.
A series of incidents on Monday show Israeli ground forces have penetrated the deepest into the Gaza Strip since they began incursions three days ago, as the relentless bombardment continues and the military confirms combined infantry, tank and engineer forces all located within the borders of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas, the militant group that controls the besieged enclave, also released a chilling video showing three of its hostages making a harsh statement to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with one woman all but shouting at the Israeli leader: “Free, free us now.” Free their civilians, free their prisoners, free us, free us all, let us return to our families now. Now! Now! Now!”
Earlier in the day, dramatic video footage shot by Palestinian journalists and geolocated by The Washington Post showed a white sedan driving on the highway toward the Netzarim intersection, where Israeli tanks were located. As the car made a slow U-turn, it appeared as if it had been hit by an Israeli tank. (Netzarim was an Israeli agricultural settlement whose last residents were expelled by Israeli soldiers during their withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005.)
Journalist Youssef Saifi filmed an Israeli tank firing on a car carrying civilians in Gaza on October 30. The car spun when it was hit. (Video: Yousef Basam via Storyful)
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari declined to comment on the incident on the highway on Monday, but told a news conference that Israel “has expanded the activity of our armed forces and additional forces have entered the strip, including infantry, armored corps and combat technology.” and artillery corps.”
“As fighting continues in the Gaza Strip, there is also direct contact between our forces on the ground and terrorists,” Hagari said.
In further signs of a deeper incursion into the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces told reporters that Israeli troops “discovered an anti-tank missile launch site in the area of Al-Azhar University and piloted a fighter jet to attack it.”
The university campus is located south of Gaza City. Social media reports from Gaza said Israeli troops were in the area.
Earlier, IDF soldiers raised an Israeli flag on the roof of a beach hotel north of Gaza City.
So far, the short video clips released by the IDF mostly show tanks and troops operating on the periphery of the Gaza Strip, primarily on farmland and the edges of urban areas.
In Gaza there are only two main roads connecting the north and south. One of them runs along the exposed coastline and the other is Salah al-Din Street, the main artery. Salah al-Din is an ancient road traveled by the armies of Alexander the Great, the Romans and Napoleon.
Journalist Bashar Talib told The Post by telephone that he was at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza when he and a colleague, Youssef Saifi, left the hospital around 8:30 a.m. local time and went to the hospital Headed north to Gaza City. They drove along the Salah al-Din highway as other routes were hit by Israeli bombardment.
“We were surprised by the presence of an Israeli tank and bulldozer on Salah al-Din Street at Netzarim intersection,” Talib said. He and Saifi immediately stopped their car and started turning around.
“During our retreat,” Talib said, he “saw a civilian car. … There was an old man in the front and a woman with children in the back.”
The Israeli tank “attacked them directly,” he said. Saifi, a cameraman for Al Araby TV, posted a video of the encounter online.
“I felt in extreme danger and had never experienced this situation before,” Talib said. “The scene was frightening. I saw pillars of flame rising.”
Talib said three people were killed and an unknown number were injured. All the injured were taken to Al-Aqsa Hospital, where spokesman Mohammed Haj confirmed the deaths of three people in the explosion.
In a statement, Hamas spokesman Salama Maarouf said several Israeli tanks and a bulldozer advanced onto the road from an agricultural area and targeted more than one vehicle before Hamas fighters “forced them to retreat.”
But Maarouf also appeared to downplay the presence of Israeli troops, saying: “There has been absolutely no ground advance in residential areas” by Israeli troops, who “currently have no presence” on Salah al-Din Street, he said.
Hamas had previously urged people not to leave the north.
Hamas also released footage on Monday that appeared to show three Israeli hostages delivering a statement to Netanyahu, whom they addressed by his nickname “Bibi.”
The video shows three women in clean clothes sitting on plastic chairs in a tiled room. One of the women reads what appears to be a prepared statement harshly criticizing the Israeli prime minister, while another woman repeats a few words at the end of the video and shakes her head in agreement.
The three hostages are not visibly injured in the video. It is not clear when the video was taken, although one of the hostages said it was 23 days after October 7.
The names of the hostages were not included in the video, but Israeli broadcaster Channel 13 reported that all were from Kibbutz Nir Oz. The women’s families asked that the video not be shown, Channel 13 reported.
The Israeli prime minister’s office called the video “cruel psychological propaganda” and in a statement, Netanyahu said they would do everything they could to bring the hostages home. “Our condolences go out to you and the other hostages.”
Harb reported from London and Booth reported from Jerusalem.